Newly released documents have revealed that the FBI intentionally
misused investigative powers with regard to a terrorist suspect
in order to slow it's own progress on the case as a justification
to call for expanded administrative spying power.

The documents, obtained by the Electronic
Frontier Foundation via the freedom of information
act, show that the bureau delayed an investigation into a former
North Carolina State University student, suspected of links to
terrorism, by using an improper National Security Letter.

The order to do so came directly from FBI Headquarters
and the bureau failed to report the misuse for almost two years.

An EFF statement reads:

"Over the span of three days in July of 2005,
FBI documents show that the bureau first obtained the educational
records of the suspect with a grand jury subpoena. However,
at the direction of FBI headquarters, agents returned the records
and then requested them again through an improper NSL.

[...]

Later in July of 2005, FBI Director Robert Mueller
used the delay in gathering the records as an example of why
the FBI needed administrative subpoena power instead of NSLs
so investigations could move faster.

The NSL in this case was improper because under
the PATRIOT ACT, NSL authority does not allow the government to
seek educational records from universities.

An EFF Senior Senior Staff Attorney writes:

"This report raises important questions about
the FBI's use of these very powerful investigative tools...
Congress should determine why FBI headquarters insisted on an
improper NSL instead of using the appropriate tools, and why
the FBI failed to report the misuse for almost two years."

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The protections of the Fourth Amendment dictate that wiretaps
to obtain the content of a phone call or an e-mail must be authorized
by a court upon a showing of probable cause.

However, the FBI gets around this by classing the information
it intercepts as "transactional data" about a communication,
that is from whom the communication originated, to whom it was
sent, how long it lasted and the like.

The bureau can collect this information under current law by
asserting that it is relevant to an official investigation. It
can administer a subpoena known as a National Security Letter
(NSL).

According to the Justice Department's inspector general, the
number of NSLs issued by the FBI soared from 8,500 in 2000 to
47,000 in 2005.

The FBI has consistently argued that NSLs are vital in order
to sidestep the legal process and speed up investigations of "terror
suspects".

In this case however, the NSL was used in order to SLOW down
the investigation.

The actions of the FBI in this case show that it is less concerned
with "fighting the war on terror" and more concerned
with its own administrative clout over surveillance of everyday
Americans.